Boehner Gives GOP Lawmakers Two Choices

WASHINGTON—House Republicans are gauging whether there’s enough Republican support to add spending cuts to a Senate-passed fiscal cliff agreement, a senior House GOP aide said Tuesday.

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) presented GOP lawmakers with two options for overcoming an impasse on legislation to deal with the fiscal cliff, a senior House GOP aide said.

The first option would be to add spending cuts to the Senate-passed bill, vote on that and send it back to the Senate, the aide said. GOP leaders will begin shortly to count whether there is enough support for this approach, the aide said.

If there are enough GOP votes to pass this approach, the House would amend the fiscal cliff bill and send it back to the Senate, the aide said.

The speaker and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) both cautioned lawmakers about the risks in such a strategy, the aide said. The leaders told the lawmakers there is no guarantee the Senate would take up an amended bill.

If not, the fallback position would be to bring the Senate-bill up as it exists, vote on it and seek to win approval for it, the aide said.

The speaker presented the options to lawmakers in a closed door meeting that is still ongoing, the aide said.

The Senate passed the bill with ease in an 89-8 vote early Tuesday morning, and the House was expected to follow suit. But at an earlier meeting of GOP lawmakers, there was concerted opposition to the existing legislation leaving Republican leaders to craft an alternate strategy.

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